


Grey Skies and Snow

by GlowyMimic



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, It's the end of the world, M/M, Rating might go up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 19:25:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13841400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlowyMimic/pseuds/GlowyMimic
Summary: It's the end of the world.Written while listening to Raise Your Head by Carpark North.





	Grey Skies and Snow

This was the end.

The Eluvians around him remained silent. No one else would be coming, leaving him alone.

Reality bleed and burned below, while the sky rumbled above. Lightning strikes light up the darkness.

He heard footsteps behind him. Some part of him was genuinely surprised just how tancious the Inquisitor was. He _had_ seen the man hunt down people with a zeal that would have made the first Inquisition blush, but the other elf had gone beyond anything he expected.

 _Obsessed_ , he corrected himself. The man _was_ a zealot. Obsessed and utterly devoted to destroying him and every single one of his agents.

They had simply captured them at first.  
That had changed drastically some two months ago.

The details were vague, due to the lack of survivors, but the fighting at one of his bases had cost the Inquisitor dearly. Most of his old companions were dead or presumed dead.

He had hoped it would dishearten the man, make him step down and find a peaceful place for himself and wait for the end.

He had been wrong.

Their deaths, particularly Dorian’s, had set him free in a way. It heralded a crusade of bloody murder.

The quickest and last one in history.

Four days later six of his agents were dead. Ten died two days later. Twelve the day after that.

More followed. Many, many more.

It didn’t matter. The Inquisitor was too late. His plan had gone ahead as it should. The old world was already falling into place again. The only thing left was to put the Inquisitor out of his misery.

The sky above rumbled loud enough to make the ground under his feet tremble.

He had to admit he wasn’t entirely sure how the Inquisitor had survived the trip up to the plateau. Everything else, _everybody_ else were gone. Perhaps he had just gotten lucky and gotten past the barriers just in time.

‘Solas.’ The voice used to be light and bright. Now it just sounded tired. Not angry, just tired. ‘Turn around. Please?’

He did as his friend asked.

Former friend, most likely. The angry green eyes staring at him felt terribly real to him at the moment. Oddly, they still had the sharp, bright yellow-green discolouration the Anchor gave them when all of this started, he noted.

The other elf looked haggard. His clothes were bloodied and torn, likely from physically murdering every person in his way, not from getting caught when the veil went down.

He wouldn’t be standing in front of him if he had.

‘Yion.’ Solas greeted, voice even.

‘And here I thought you’d go for some like _figment_ or _construct_.’ Yion said blankly. ‘I’ve had arguments with somebody over that.’ He slapped his hand against the metal palm of a gauntlet that had replaced his lost arm. From what he had heard it also served as a staff...

‘With who?’ Solas asked.

‘Oh, you know. _Somebody_. Somebody I knew. A _person_.’ He tossed his arms into the air. ‘Or really, a construct of a world that shouldn’t be. A _mistake_. _Your_ mistake.’

Solas blinked.

‘Did...insinuating you weren’t real people anger you _that_ much?’ He asked, tilting his head to the side.

‘Why are you asking _me_ questions? Nothing I say would really matter to you.’ Yion snapped and mimicked his head tilt. ‘I don’t matter to you. I _never_ did. Not even now. You’re still giving me _that_ look...’ He pointed at him with a bloodied, metallic finger. ‘I can’t tell you how many times I dreamt about punching that look off your face since you took my arm.’

‘You-’ Solas started, but Yion cut him off.

‘How long did my first friend help us save the world? Hmm?’ Yion asked the air and started counting on his prosthetic hand. The entire arm was covered in dry blood. ‘A year? Then he fucks off for two years.’ He swung his left arm around, claws cutting the air. ‘And then _he_ shows up again, almost starts a war with the Qunari, just to tell me he’s going to end the world and kill everybody.’ He waved a metallic finger in a circle. ‘And then my best friend maims me on top of everything else! What an absolute _bastard_ , don’t you think so?’

Solas’ mouth twitched.

The sky rumbled again, making the earth tremble once again.

‘How old was I when the Conclave blew up?’ Yion asked, pointing a metal claw at him. ‘Do you know?’

Solas gave him a blank stare.

‘Humour me? Please? Solas, _please_ ?’ Yion’s voice broke into a little hysterical laugh. ‘I think you owe me that much. You owe me _everything_ really. I-I helped you so much and here you are, taking all the credit.’ Yion said, making a circle motion with a clawed finger again. ‘I-I did everything you told me to…’

‘ _What_ are you doing?’ Solas asked, eyes narrowing.

‘ _This mistake of yours is asking a question_.’ Yion snapped abruptly and gave him a serious look. ‘There’s nobody left to ask.’ He bowed mockingly. ‘Answer, O god.’

‘You were twenty-five.’ Solas stated, ignoring the barbs.

‘I’m barely twenty-three, Solas.’ Yion said, giving him a tired look.

Solas’ eyebrows fell. ‘ _ou were twenty-five._ ’ He repeated.

‘I was nineteen.’ Yion hissed. ‘ _Very influenceable and intensely eager to help. Perfect as an Inquisition agent._ That’s what Leliana wrote about me _._ Did you know that?’

Solas opened his mouth to speak, but Yion held up a finger.

‘I spent my childhood as a pariah to the Dalish. Ignored. A shadow in the edge of the corner of their eyes. A little blot. I wasn’t a person to them. I wasn’t allowed to get a Vallaslin.’

He gave him a disbelieving glare. ‘I was so starved for contact from my own kind that I latched on to the first, even remotely friendly elf I met! Which was _you_.’

He waved a hand in his direction and rolled his eyes. ‘I managed to befriend the person who started _all_ of this. The one who placed the Anchor on my hand.’ He looked at the palm of his hand where the Inquisition’s Eye stared back at him.

‘The one who’s ended the world and murdered everybody I know and love.’ He said, looking back to Solas. ‘ _My_ mistake.’

The sky rumbled deeply as the two elves stared at each other and the world burned.

‘You remember that chantry person I kept getting into arguments with?’ Yion asked after several seconds of silence. ‘She kept saying _something_ was looking over me and I kept saying she was a _fucking_ idiot for thinking that? I had her tossed in the cells four times?’

‘...Yes?’ Solas said and raised eyebrow. They were difficult to forget. Varric had taken notes of them for his book.

‘Well, I _might_ owe that person an apology.’ Yion said with a grimace. ‘Not _might_ , really. I absolutely owe her an apology. She was right. Just not about who it was. Is? It’s _is_ isn’t it?’

His eyes darted up to the sky. ‘ _Is_.’

Solas narrowed his eyes at the other elf.

‘He called Chaionus.’ Yion said shakily. He caught Solas’ blank look. ‘Chaionus? Dark lilac skin, tall? Smiles a lot? Too many fingers? No? You’ve never seen him in the Fade? Really You can’t really mis-’

‘Where are you going with this?’ Solas interrupted sharply.

‘I was halfway across the field when you tore down the Veil.’ Yion said blankly. ‘The last three Inquisition soldiers behind me burned.’

‘ _What_.’ Solas said flatly.

‘It’s the worst thing I’ve experienced a-and that’s saying a lot?’ Yion carried on shakily. ‘Considering what _you_ put me through? Yion said and nodded. ‘Did I mention I’ve declared them saints? The soldiers, I mean. _Saints_.’

He took a deep breath, then another.

‘You _should_ have killed me that day, Solas.’ He whispered, pressing a hand to his forehead. ‘It would have been _kind_.’

‘Allow me to rectify that now.’ Solas said firmly, eyes glowing.

‘Mmhm.’ Yion hummed and nodded again.

Beside the sky rumbling, nothing happened.

‘You almost got me with that two weeks ago. When I crashed through that ceiling of that hidden library?’ Yion said airly and waved his fingers at him. ‘You hit Leliana. She pushed me out of the way.’ Yion murmured, eyes going blank. ‘I burned that library, did you hear? It would have made Dorian so mad. He won’t ever forgive me. There’s no coming back from this.’

Solas shook his head, not in response to what the Inquisitor was saying.

‘The whole ‘not turning to stone’ thing? It’s Chaionus’s doing. _My_ doing really. _He’s me_. _I’m supposed to be him_.’ Yion’s voice crackled again as he flinched like he was in pain. ‘The Dalish were right to shun me, Solas. Can you _imagine_ ? They were right?’ He smiled at him. It was too...wide. _Wild_.

‘So were you. I’m just... _something_ cobbled together from ancient bones and blood.’ Yion shook his head wildly. ‘A _mistake that didn’t work as it should_.’

The other elf rambled and Solas struggled to keep up.

The sky rumbled hard enough to shatter one of the Eluvians nearby.

Solas looked from the mirror and back to the Inquisitor. This wasn’t...

‘I can hear him _now_ because the veil is gone. He’s telling me things, Solas.’ Yion said, lifting his left arm up towards the churning sky, fingers curled like claws. Gemstones on the gauntlet’s side glowed sharply in the dark, screaming with built up energy. ‘Telling me how to end this.’

‘What are yo-’ Solas started, eyes growing wide as none of his powers did anything to the other elf.

Behind him a massive column of lightning and light fell from sky and struck the reemerging land, cutting deep into the ground.

‘ _No_.’ Solas whispered, eyes going from the damaged area to Yion. He flinched as another column struck.

Another struck an old temple that had just remade itself. His hand went down to his hip, reaching for a knife. It was mostly a decorative thing...

‘Should be obvious by now, I think?’ Yion said shakily, eyes fixed on Solas’ and let his hand fall. ‘Hopefully this kills you outright, Solas. I really hope you don’t have to see everything die in front of you. I’m not _that_ cruel.’

The sky screamed as another column of light came towards him, tearing through him and the ground below like a sword, fatally wounding a refroming world.

The blast blew Yion of his feet and set him flying towards one of the Eluvians which flared to life and took him away. Leaving Solas to die alone.

He fell downwards and went through another Eluvian.

And another.

And another.

And another.

He fell down pathways that became more and more bizarre and old looking. Decorations of dragons began to appear.

Yion didn’t care. He was lost.

Chaionus followed him as lilac smoke, chuckling mirthlessly.  
\----

Yion opened his eyes. It was _cold_ .  
Cold enough to pull him out of numb state of mind he rather liked now.

He raised his head, shaking loose snow from his hair. He blinked at it as it fell. Thoughts sluggish and nonsensical.

He was covered by a thin layer of snow. He moved slowly, trying to get into a sitting position.  

‘... _Dorian_ ?’ He called, blinking at the rocky and snowy landscape. He had been lying under a big pine tree.

His eyes darted around, finding only more trees and cliffs. He wrapped his arms around himself. ‘Dorian?’

There was no response, just falling snow in a cold wind and grey skies above him.

**Author's Note:**

> Chaionus is...something /else/.


End file.
